1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a driver disk for a clutch plate of a motor vehicle clutch with a strengthening or reinforcement part and with a facing carrier arranged for holding friction facings, the facing carrier having a plurality of segments fastened to the outer circumference of the reinforcement part via a material engagement.
2. Description of the Related Art
A driver disk for a motor vehicle friction clutch is disclosed, for example, in German reference DE 43 35 674 A1. The driver disk disclosed in this reference has a reinforcement part made of sheet metal and a facing carrier arranged on the reinforcement part and includes a plurality of segments. The reinforcement part has a thickness greater than that of the facing carrier arranged thereon. The reinforcement part also has an axial stop and a centering collar for the segments of the facing carrier. During assembly, the segments are pretensioned against the stop and centering collar when the driver disk is mounted. The segments are then welded with the reinforcement part and with one another. This assembly procedure prevents large gaps from forming between the reinforcement part and the facing carrier which must be bridged by welding material during welding. The procedure results in low welding distortion and, therefore, in low expenditure on straightening after the driver disk is assembled.
When the driver disk is mounted in the clutch, the weld seam between the segments is exposed to a very high shear load which may lead to tearing of the weld seam between the segments and may subsequently destroy the weld seam between the segments and the reinforcement part.
The object of the present invention is to provide a driver disk for clutch plate of a motor vehicle clutch such that it has high stability and is economical to manufacture.
This object of the present invention is met by a driver disk for a clutch plate having a reinforcement part and a facing carrier part having segments adjoining the reinforcement part in which adjacent ones of the segments loosely contact one another or are at a distance from one another in the area adjoining the reinforcement part.
The inventive arrangement allows the segments to move slightly relative to one another without exposing any weld seams to shear loading. Accordingly, the fastening of the segments to the reinforcement part is also loaded only slightly. The driver disk according to the invention accordingly has a particularly high stability. The distance between the segments may be very small and may be determined, for example, by tolerances of the segments. The connection of the segments at the reinforcement part of the driver disk according to the invention requires a particularly low expenditure compared with the material engagement of the segments at the reinforcement part of the known driver disk. The driver disk according to the invention may therefore be manufactured in a particularly economical manner. A further advantage of this arrangement consists in that the heat distortion is especially low when the material engagement is generated in the welding process. Therefore, the expenditure required for straightening the driver disk is minimized when manufacturing the driver disk according to the present invention.
The loading of the material engagement between the segments and the reinforcement part is also minimized according to an embodiment of the invention when the end areas of the segments of the regions adjoining the reinforcement part are constructed elastically.
The reinforcement part of a disk typically has areas with windows provided for receiving springs of a torsional vibration damper. These areas with windows are weakened because of the windows. According to another advantageous further development of the invention, these areas may be strengthened in a particularly simple manner when the segments are constructed so as to be wider than windows for a torsional vibration damper and are arranged symmetric to the windows with respect to a radial line which passes through a center of the window.
According to another embodiment of the invention, loading of the end areas of the material-engagement connection between the segments and the reinforcement part is minimized when the end areas of the segments contacting the reinforcement part taper to form slender tongues.
The end areas of the material-engagement connection are further relieved when the taper of the segments has a radius in edge areas of the segments adjoining the tongues.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, high elasticity of the segments in their areas adjoining the reinforcement part is achieved when neighboring segments form a common round recess in their areas adjoining one another.
The assembly of the driver disk according to the present invention is facilitated when the segments are arranged asymmetrically about the reinforcement part and/or have mounting pins.
A particularly small expenditure with respect to construction is required to achieve a high degree of comfort in engaging the clutch provided with the driver disk according to the present invention when each of the segments has a facing spring. The facing springs enable axial movement of friction facings mounted on the facing carrier.
A particularly uniform pretensioning of the friction facings away from the facing carrier may be produced according to another embodiment of the invention in that each of the segments has a plurality of facing springs.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the facing springs are constructed as raised portions or protuberances incorporated in the segments.
The driver disk according to the present invention exhibits high stability when each of the friction facings arranged on the facing carrier is fastened to two segments. This construction also results in a particularly uniform transmission of torque from the friction facings to the driver disk.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.